In the latest act of violence in the northeast state of Manipur, which has been the scene of battles between two factions over the demand for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category, a crowd of over 1,000 people attacked the home of a Union Minister last night. According to officials, Union Minister RK Ranjan Singh was not at the Imphal house at the time of the event.
Despite a curfew in Imphal, the mob was able to get to the minister’s home in Kongba. At the time of the event, there were nine security escorts employees, five security guards, and eight more guards on duty at the minister’s home.
The mob flung petrol bombs from all angles throughout the attack, according to a security guard inside the minister’s home.
We were unable to stop the incident because the crowd was too large and out of control. They launched petrol bombs from both the building’s front entrance and the back alley, arriving from all sides. L. Dineshwor Singh, Escort Commander, explained that as a result, we were unable to manage the mob.
The mob, according to the escort commander, consisted of about 1,200 persons.
The minister’s home has experienced a mob attack twice before. Security forces fired into the air to scatter the mob during the incident in May.
After a “Tribal Solidarity March” was held throughout the hill districts on May 3 to oppose the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status, fighting broke out in Manipur.
Tension over the displacement of Kuki villagers from reserve forest land had caused a number of smaller agitations before to the violence in Manipur.
In Manipur, the Meiteis make up the majority of the population, followed by the Naga and Kuki tribes.
RK Ranjan Singh, the minister of state for external affairs and education, met with a delegation of academics from the Meitei and Kuki groups in Manipur last month to discuss ways to restore peace to the violent northeast state. The minister also requested in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he “identify and condemn” any regional politicians who may be to blame for the unrest in Manipur.
No community or ethnic group should hold us accountable… Leaders frequently trample on the cordial relationships between ethnic groups in order to further their political objectives. Politicians with narrow minds frequently manipulate the feelings and lives of the common people. They have harmed civilization enough already. Their strategies cause unthinkable losses, as the current ethnic conflagration. Such neighbourhood leaders must be located and denounced, Mr. Singh argued in a letter he sent to PM Modi on May 21.
Conflicts between the Meiteis, who inhabit in and around the state capital Imphal valley, and the Kuki tribe, who have taken up residence in the hills, have claimed more than 100 lives since May 3. The conflict stems from the valley’s residents’ demand to be classified as a Scheduled Tribe (ST).
